Work, Meaning, and
Multiple Identities
Framing

Growing interest around the inter-relationships
among identity / identification, meaning, and work

Understanding how we make it all work: multiple
roles, multiple identities, multiple meanings

Designing new study with several colleagues at U of
Illinois (such as Teresa) – want general and specific
feedback
Goals

To examine how organizational practices,
individual differences in work orientation, and
organizational affiliation contribute to distinct
types of identification.

To examine the effect of these distinct types
of identification (4) on organizational
outcomes.
Model: The “Big Picture”
Organizational
Practices
• work
• social context
Affiliation
• proximity
• temporal factors
• administrative control
• social linkages
Organizational Identification
Work Orientation
• job
• career (A) & (B)
• calling
Patterns of Identification
Experienced
Meaningfulness
• in working
• at work
Professional Identification
Low
High
Low
Nonidentified
Professional
Identifier
High
Org.
Identifier
Dual
Identifier
Organizational
Commitment
Org. Citizenship
Behaviors
Job
Satisfaction
Proposed Context




Medical context (2 health care systems – 1
religiously affiliated)
Numerous professional groups
Different backgrounds, training, certification,
status orientation, job perceptions, ideologies
Different levels of identification with
profession and organization
Identification Patterns


Organizational & Professional
Assume that Identification is not “fixed pie”
(can simultaneously identify with numerous
targets)




Professional identifiers (e.g., cosmopolitans)
Organizational identifiers (e.g., locals)
Non-identifiers (within workplace)
Dual identifiers
Organizational Practices

Work: changing what members do, changing
the nature of the job tasks



meaningfulness in working
stronger link to professional identification?
Social Context: changing various aspects of
the social context (e.g., culture, work
relationships)


meaningfulness at work
stronger link to organizational identification?
Work Orientation

Job: economic focus


Career A: achievement focus – advancement within
an organization


predictive of ‘Organization Identifiers’?
Career B: achievement focus – advancement
across organizations


predictive of ‘Non-Identifiers’?
predictive of ‘Professional Identifiers?’
Calling: fulfillment, transcendence

predictive of ‘Dual Identifiers’ or ‘Professional Identifiers’?
Affiliation
Proximity
Temporal
Factors
Interaction is Full time vs.
Co-located vs. Part time
Not co-located
Administrative
Control
Social
Linkages
Not paid vs. Paid Contact with
 firm vs. other
organizational
payroll
others is high or
low
Continuous
vs. Interrupted
Size of network
internal
external
Short-term vs.
Long-term
Exclusive vs.
Not Exclusive
Adapted from Pfeffer and Baron (1988)
Affiliation

Still working on specific hypotheses for
affiliation

In general, we believe that lack of proximity,
and working alone will have a larger influence
on organizational identification than
professional identification
Experienced Meaningfulness

Want to assess:


meaningfulness in working
meaningfulness at work

No “set measures” that we know of – likely be
the focus of qualitative analysis

Need to determine whether or not to “split”
different aspects of meaningfulness at work
(e.g., ‘culture’ and ‘relationships’)
Organizational Commitment

Might different types of commitment be
related to different identification patterns (and
work orientations)?



Continuance – non-identifiers (and job-oriented)?
Affective – organizational and dual (and career
A)?
Normative – professional and dual (and career B
and calling)?
Other Outcomes

OCB’s: e.g., task conscientiousness, helping
others, participating in organizational politics,
positive attitudes

Job Satisfaction
Need Specific Feedback
About…

Career A and B



“Non-traditional” outcome variables





Does this distinction make sense
Will we get differences between career B and callings?
Can we do more than OCBs and job satisfaction?
Logic of predictions?
Missing aspects of affiliation?
Capturing meaningfulness in and at work?
Look for “transcendent” practices?
Thank you!
Meaningfulness in and at Work
(Pratt & Ashforth 2003)
Meaningfulness in
Working Practices
Meaningfulness at
Work Practices
Role:
What Am I Doing?
Membership:
Where Do I Belong?
Identity:
Who Am I?
Meaningfulness:
Why Am I Here?
Organizational Practices
Meaning at Work
Meaning in Working
Job redesign
Employee
involvement
Path-goal
leadership
Nurturing
callings
Building cultures,
identities, ideologies
Transformational,
charismatic or
Recruitment visionary
leadership
Selection
Socialization
Building
communities
Providing a cosmology
Promoting psychological safety
Enacting with integrity
Transcendence